author
Matilda Betham
1776–1852
A lively figure of the Romantic era, this English writer and miniature portrait painter moved in literary circles that included Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Her work ranged from poetry and biography to art, with a lasting interest in women’s lives and achievements.
4 Audiobooks
Elegies and Other Small Poems
by Matilda Betham
Poems
by Matilda Betham
The Lay of Marie and Vignettes in Verse
by Matilda Betham
Vignettes in Verse
by Matilda Betham
About the author
Born in Suffolk on 16 November 1776, Mary Matilda Betham—usually known as Matilda Betham—became an English diarist, poet, biographer, and miniature portrait painter. She published her first book of verses in 1797 and later brought out several more works, building a reputation as a versatile and determined literary voice.
Betham was also an active artist, exhibiting miniature portraits at the Royal Academy between 1804 and 1816. In London she became part of a wide literary network, and her friendships with writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Charles and Mary Lamb helped place her at the heart of early 19th-century cultural life.
One of her most ambitious books was A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804), a major project that reflected her deep interest in women’s history. She died in London on 30 September 1852, but her poetry, diaries, and artwork have continued to attract renewed attention for the way they capture the energy and ambition of a creative woman working in the Romantic period.